w Jim was already ashamed of his petulance with her.
After all, she was the prettiest girl of them all; and, so far as he
knew, the richest. She was "thoroughbred;" her family one of the oldest
in its native State; and though the poorhouse boy had no family pride of
his own he was loyal to old Maryland and his earliest friend. What had
not Dolly been to him? His first teacher, his loving companion, and the
means of all that was good coming into his life.

"Say, Dolly, I'm sorry I said that and shamed you. Sorry I'm such a
conceited donkey as to hate being looked down on. You just keep me
posted on what's what, little girl, and I'll try to behave myself. But
it beats creation, to find such a place as this up here on the Rockies
and to know one man's done it. Kind of takes a feller's breath away,
don't it?"

They were a little ahead of the rest of the party and able to talk
freely, so Dorothy improved the chance to give "her boy Jim" a little
lecture; suggesting that he must never stop short of accomplishing just
as much as Daniel Ford had done.

"What one poor lad can do, another can--if he will! _If he will_, James
Barlow! It's just the _will_, you see. There was a copy in my old
writing-book: 'What man has done, man can do.'"

"Shucks! I'm ambitious enough, but 'tain't along no money lines. What I
want is learnin'--just plain knowledge. I wrote a copy once, too, and
'twas that 'Knowledge is Power.' I made them capitals the best I could
so 't I never would forget 'em."

"Huh! For such a wise young man you talk pretty common. There's no need,
Jim Barlow, for you to go back into all the bad grammar and chipped-off
words just because you're talking to--me. I notice you are very
particular and careful when you speak to our hosts. Oh, Jim! isn't this
going to be just a glorious summer? Except when I think about Aunt Betty
I'm almost too happy to breathe."

Jim had stumbled along beside her, unseeing the objects that were
nearest--the lovely shrubbery, beautiful flowers, and quaint little
furnishings of that grand lawn--but with his eyes fixed on a distant
mountain peak, bare of verdure, and seemingly but a mass of vari-colored
rock; and he now remarked:

"I wonder how much of this country that Dan Ford owns! I wonder if he's
got a claim on the peaks yonder!"

"Come back to earth, boy! Can't you think anything, see anything
but--stones? Here we are at the door and I fancy this gentleman is the
doctor. Good evening,